Shane Jones is brushing off the fallout from his controversial "exterminate" comments about public servants.
The chief executive of the agency managing fast-track consents blasted “threatening” comments by Shane Jones after the Regional Development Minister vowed to “exterminate” any problems undermining the scheme.
And the chairman of the same organisation described Jones’ remarks as “unhelpful, unnecessary, unenlightened, and unacceptable coming from a minister of the Crown”.
Jones doubled down on calls for the agency to better handle fast-track bids and told the Herald he rejected suggestions he had threatened to fire public servants.
“I find it a bit kind of confounding really that they’ve got time for this kind of almost like snowflaky chit chat,” Jones said.
The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) is responsible for managing applications under the Government’s fast-track regime, acting as the secretariat for the consenting panels.
The furore was sparked by Jones telling BusinessDesk in August he feared the system was becoming a “slow-track” and suggested the culture at the EPA was to blame.
“It’s either a matter that the personnel are the problem, the culture is the problem, or the law is the problem – because I refuse to accept that all the applicants are the problem,” Jones was reported as saying on August 6.
“The applicants are trying to invest and develop jobs and create infrastructure, and if I get any hint that they’re being deliberately undermined, then as God as my witness, that problem will be exterminated.”
Those comments did not go down well at the EPA.
Documents released to the Herald under the Official Information Act show EPA chief executive Dr Allan Freeth emailed his board chairman Barry O’Neil and Ministry for the Environment chief executive James Palmer to express his horror and to call for action to be taken.
“I am concerned about the impact on our staff with this type of unacceptable, threatening comment,” Freeth wrote.
“May I suggest we raise this with our minister asap as a concern and ask that she speak with her colleague. I wonder what the PSC [Public Service Commission] responsibility is here. This is not a matter of being overly sensitive, but the use of the word ‘exterminated’ no matter the retail politics and hyperbole does leave a ‘chilling’ feeling.”
Replying to Freeth, O’Neil described the comments as “unhelpful, unnecessary, unenlightened, and unacceptable coming from a minister of the Crown”.
Later that day, fast-track application manager Richard Preece called staff in to a meeting to discuss the “disparaging” comments, according to internal communications released to the Herald.
EPA staff were told by Preece to ignore Jones’ stern words.
“Please do not give the comments that Shane Jones has made any credibility. They do not accurately represent the work you are all doing to make this process work,” Preece said.
In a screenshot of a private message posted to social media, an EPA employee said: “My team just got called into a room with [redacted] and [redacted] told [redacted] that Shane Jones had threatened to fire people in the team”.
“Something about how the culture at [redacted] is stopping applications from going through and if he finds anyone being prohibitive then he’ll find them and fire them himself,” the message said.
Two days later, the union representing public servants, the Public Service Association (PSA) got involved, according to internal messages from the EPA.
PSA national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons told the Herald this week that Jones’ comments were “gross and offensive”.
“It’s a reasonable assessment that Shane Jones was suggesting that public officials at the Environmental Protection Agency would be exterminated and that people would read that as their dismissal,” Fitzsimons said.
She said the union has supported multiple members who had raised concerns about the comments, as well as raising it directly with the EPA.
Fitzsimons said Jones should apologise for the remarks.
But the minister is not apologising, telling the Herald yesterday the “bureaucratic system is struggling to implement” fast-track rules because they are “pro-growth, pro-development legislation”.
“I don’t have the power to fire anyone,” he said.
“I fear that the EPA may very well have people who are better suited to an ideological nunnery, rather than delivering on the Government’s manifesto and stated outcome to rapidly grow the economy.”
Freeth told the Herald in a statement he was “disappointed and concerned to read the comments by Minister Jones about the EPA’s fast-track performance”.
“I was concerned about the impact these comments could have on the wellbeing of our staff,” he said.
O’Neil raised the issue with the Public Service Commission on August 13.
The next day, he discussed it in a regular meeting with Environment Minister Penny Simmonds.
He then wrote to Jones on behalf of the EPA on August 22, expressing his disappointment in the comments and standing by his staff.
“I can assure you that the EPA is committed to fulfilling its role to implement the fast-track process. The EPA board and management take the expectations of ministers and Government very seriously and recognise the importance of fast-track to the economic prosperity of New Zealand”, O’Neil said.
He said staff had “delivered an enormous amount of work in a very short timeframe” and Jones’ comments had shaken the confidence of fast-track applicants.
“Unfortunately, in the past week, staff have begun to hear reservations from applicants about whether it’s worth engaging in the fast-track process. In addition to the negative impact on EPA staff, we are concerned that these statements may be reducing confidence in the process for applicants.”
Jones said the pair had met to discuss the issues on September 11 and O’Neil had sought to go back and identify where things could be done more efficiently.
“I want to see less kumbaya and more kia kaha,” the minister said.
Ethan Manera is a Wellington-based journalist covering Wellington issues, local politics and business in the capital. He can be emailed at ethan.manera@nzme.co.nz.